Imitation willow plume.



D. METZGER.

IMITATION WILLOW PLUME.

APPLICATION mum APRJY, 1911.

1,009,433, 7 Paten ted Nov. 21, 1911.

DAVID METZGER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMITATION wrLLow PLUME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 21, 1911.

Application filed April 17, 1911. Serial No. 621,658.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID METZGER, a citizen of the United States,residing at New York, county of New York, State of New York, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Imitation WVillow Plumes, ofwhich the following is a specification.

My invention relates to artificial feather plumes and more particularlyto an imita-I interspersed with regions of dead or velvety tion of adrooping willow plume.

During the past five or siX years there has been a great demand forwillow plumes. These Willow plumes are constructed from real ostrichfeathers, in the following manner:-A real ostrich plume is taken and Vto the ends of the flues are tied or knotted. additional flues ofanother plume so that the flue of the real ostrich feather islengthened, being often twice the'length of the natural flue and thus adrooping or what.

is known to the trade as a willow effect is attained. These willowplumes being made of real ostrich feathers and having the ends knottedby hand are of course expensive and tedious to make.

As is well known, the genuine ostrich plume presents an appearance ofrapid gradations and variations of light and shade which eflects areparticularly noticeable in the plumes from the male ostrich. This effectis due to the fact that all ostrich feathers have horny but somewhatflexible branch spines radiating from the central quill or spine, and amicroscopic examina tion will show that each one of these branchedspines has two rows of very fine short radiating hairs very closetogether,

each series of hairs being located in a defi nite row or series. Thesehairs may be termed rays and are exceedingly small in breadth beingsomewhat flat like a blade of grass; they are also opaque and have ahighly lustrous surface. These rays being in rows, and exceedingly closetogether, refleet the light from their flattened surface. The variousflues on which are the rays have different positions so that whereas therays of one flue may happen to be so positioned at one instant as toreflect light to the eye, the rays of another flue or series of fluesmay be so positioned as to reflect the light in another direction fromanother part or region of the feather. In this latter case such localitywill appear a dead or velvety black because from this region the eyereceives no light, the light going off plume constructed of silk strips,etc.

in some other direction. On the other hand where a series of rays happento be so disposed that their flattened surfaces together reflect thelight toward the eye this region will have a lustrous or brightenedelfect. The whole result is that the complete plume presents adistinctively variegated appearance of light and shade, that is, of somelustrous areas extending along the flues, and

black. As is also well known, the ends of the flues of the naturalostrich plume have a tendency to curl upward naturally and this tendencyis increased by the lengthening or willowing of the flues which has beendescribed. It is to attain these variegated effects of light and shadeand also the curl of the natural plume that this invention is directed.As is well known, all the elforts made heretofore to copy the veins of anatural feather, have consisted in making the flues of some fuzzymaterial such as chenille, worsted, 'etc., which effects have beenentirely unsatisfactory.

On July 20th 1910, Letters Patent 96447 6 were issued to me for animitation willow l\/Iy present invent-ion consists in treating the silkflues of the imitation willow plume in a manner so that each flue has avariegated effect of light and shade and also curls at the ends.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a perspective view of animitation willow plume made in accordance with my invention showing thegradations of light and shade as well as can be possibly shown by adrawing. Fig. 2 is a view of one of the flues treated by my process soas to produce the light and shade effect. Fig. 3 is a straight flue madeof strips of silk. Fig. I is a view of one form of making a fluestructure. Fig. 5 is another view and a modification.

The flues a of my plume are made of flexible, lustrous ribbozine whichis the material referred to in my prior patent. The strip of ribbozineor flue is so treated as to impart to the strip the characteristics ofthe flues of a genuine feather. In the best construction embodying theinvention the crinkly efiect will essentially include a diagonalstriation b somewhatas illustrated in Fig. 2 this being the angle of therays of the flue of a genuine feather. The feather may then beconstructed as shown in my earlier patent above mentioned. The fluestructure may be made by weaving a number of threads of the silk stripsor ribbozine a back and forth in a suitable machine and then running acentral seam a down the center to hold the flues together and thencutting the edges and sewing the flue structure thus made to the quillor I may put a spreader (Z underneath the flues if desired in order togive the plume a fuller effect. The flue structure may also be made byhaving a series of longitudinal central seams to take the place of thespreader. Or the flue structure may be made by simply sewing the threadson to the buckram or other kind of spreader (Z by machine or hand, butthis last named process of construction is slow and expensive. I alsomay make the flue structure with the central longitudinal seam 0 andthen sew the structure to the spreader by hand or machine and thenpulling out the central longitudinal stitches. The detail manner offorming the flue structure is not important so far as this invention isconcerned, the only important thing being to obtain an arrangement ofthe flues whereby they flow outwardly in a fluffy manner from both sidesof the central quill and so as to have the spread which a genuinefeather has near the spine. After the flue structure is secured to thequill e, the ends of the flues a are curled. The curling may be done byhand or by machine, preferably by machine.

Feathers embodying the present inven tion will essentially include aflue constituting the most important part of the invention and by virtueof which the distinctive appearance of a real plume is copied Copies ofthis patent may be obtained for with exact fidelity in the imitation. Inthe real plume the ends of the flues are so light and feathery in theirtexture and so flexible that they do not hang side by side in the mannerof the main portion of the flues. It is evidently impossible to simulatethis light and feathery texture of the extremities in the ribbozine, butthe same effect so far as appearance is concerned I have found may beattained by mechanically curling the extremities of the individual fluessome what in the manner shown in Fig. 2. With this construction thecurves in the different flues cause the extremities to hang or extend ina manner which exactly simulates the appearance of the genuine article.

I claim:

1. An imitation willow plume containing a quill, a fine structuresecured to said quill, said flue structure consisting of flues ofribbozine being crinkled diagonal to their length to produce light andshade effects.

2. In a plume of the kind described, a flue composed of silk stripshaving diagonal striations thereon so as to give the effect of light andshade and curled at the ends.

3. In a plume of the kind described, a flue structure composed of aseries of silk strips fastened together by a seam, said strips havingdiagonal striations so as to give the variegated effect of light andshade.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

DAVID METZGER.

Vitnesses M. E. VVARLAND, CHRISTIAN H. ALMsTAEDT.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington,D. c.

